In this research area, we design fractal capacitors and fabricate them in MEMS processes to study the benefits that the fractal geometries bestow upon MEMS capacitors processwise. Fractal capacitors in CMOS were introduced chiefly to enhance the capacitance density. In MEMS, however, they offer several additional advantages from a very different viewpoint. Specifically, we try and address fabrication challenges usually faced in MEMS including residual stress warping, the need of etching holes, the scarcity of metal layers, and stiction.

References:

  1. Amro Elshurafa and Khaled N Salama"Achieving nanoscale horizontal separations in the standard 2 μm PolyMUMPS process", Applied nano sciences, accepted january 2013 (Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s13204-013-0195-z)

  2. Amro Elshurafa and Khaled N Salama, "Two-layer RF MEMS fractal capacitors in PolyMUMPS for S-band applications," IET Micro & Nano letters, vol 7, no 5, pp. 419-421, May 2012. (IEEE top 10 accessed article june 2012)
  3. A. M. Elshurafa, A.G. Radwan, P. H. Ho, M. Ouda and K. N. Salama "Low Voltage Puzzle-Like Fractal  MEMS Variable Capacitors Suppressing Pull-in" IET micro and nano letters, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 965-969, 2012.
  4. A. M. Elshurafa, P. H. Ho and K. N. Salama, "A Low Voltage RF MEMS Variable Capacitor with Linear C-V Response" IET electronics letters, vol 48, no 7, pp. 392-393, march 2012
  5. Amro Elshurafa and Khaled N Salama, "A Differential RF MEMS Interwoven Capacitor Immune to Residual Stress Warping," IET Micro and Nano letters, Volume 7, issue 7, pp 658-661, July 2012  (IEEE top 10 accessed article August 2012)
  6. Amro Elshuarafa, Ahamed G Radwan, Ahmed Emira and Khaled N Salama,"RF MEMS Fractal Capacitors with High Self Resonant Frequencies ", IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS), vol 21, no 1, 10-12, 2012 (top 10 accessed article march 2012)
  7. F. Ghaffar, A. Shamim, K. N. Salama  DESIGN AND COMPARISON OF LTCC BASED FRACTAL ANTENNAS" the XXX General Assembly and Scientific Symposium of the International Union of Radio Science 2011 
  8. F. Ghaffar, A. Shamim, K. N. Salama, “A miniaturized wide-band fractal LTCC antenna,” The 27th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics(ACES), Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. march 2011 (accepted)
  9. M. Umair, A. Shamim, K. N. Salama, “24 GHz Multi-dielectric LTCC Fresnel Lens for Automotive Radar SOP Applications”, he 27th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES), Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. march 2011 (accepted)